Jamie Iannone

Are Wegmans, Giant Eagle, and GetGo Tech companies? Or are they grocers, c-stores, etc.? Retail is in a Tech race. That’s clear. National retailers are now part of Big Tech. Shoppers want speed and seem less omnichannel. Brands want measurable, trustworthy velocity tools. But what about smaller regional chains? They don’t often have the resources. And some just want to be retailers. Enter Rippl. Rippl is now bridging the Tech gap for smaller retailers. It just launched a new retail media platform to: -> Create a standardized retail media point for small chains. -> Offer closed loop data reporting snd feedback. -> Consolidate a list of 70 Million shoppers. -> Offer state of the art customer targeting. And just like that… Wegmans, Giant Eagle, and GetGo are in the game. So if you need to increase velocity and one of these chains. Things are about to get easier. ——— 🔹Driving retail velocity in Kroger, Whole Foods, Albertsons, Costco, Walmart, Sprouts, and More 🔹DM me or book an appointment for help! #ecommerce #retailmedia #retailvelocity #retail #cpggrowth #instacart #cpg #tradespend

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Having a Cars and Capital event tomorrow in Southern California with Oren Klaff. If you want to join message me. https://lnkd.in/gDQ4D39u Oren Klaff Bridger Pennington #InvestorEvent #FamilyOffice #InvestmentOpportunity #CarlsbadEvent #PrivateEquity #WealthManagement #InvestmentConference #CapitalRaising #NetworkingEvent #IndustryLeaders #FinancialGrowth #InvestorsMeetup #WealthBuilding #BusinessGrowth #InvestmentForum

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It's uncommon to see innovation in a product that has been chugging along at the same level for decades. But Mark Adams, Keeri Tramm, Holden Page, and Bo Frize are building something special with our RealTrends Verified business. For those that don't know about RealTrends Verified, it's the one real estate rankings program that uses double-verified data (from the agent and their brokerage). Steve Murray and Tracey Velt had been operating the rankings for decades before we acquired the business. Ever since we acquired the business, we've noticed that our ranking pages have pretty impressive SEO juice. Try searching for "best real estate agents" or "best real estate agents in Texas", and you'll see a RealTrends page pretty high your results. This year, we're going to start leveraging this SEO juice with an expansion of RealTrends Verified into city pages. Now people will be able to search for "best real estate agents in Dallas", and find top agents in their city. We'll drill down even further into neighborhoods and zip codes in the coming years. If you're a brokerage or team leader, or a top agent in your city, please check out our new city pages! https://lnkd.in/eTGVHsaN

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What does great look like in Net Revenue Retention performance in 2024? Some companies continue to deliver NRR of more than 150%. How are they doing this? https://lnkd.in/gZ9hauYS #NRR #NDR #SaaS #generativeAI #pricing

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It’s exciting to witness how the hyperscalers are enabling a hyper-collaborative marketplace ecosystem that allows the multiplication of revenue opportunities. I see this happening in two ways 1️⃣ ISVs are being encouraged by hyperscalers to build with interoperability in mind 🔧 All three #hyperscalers have, over the course of the last few years, incrementally deepened their partnerships with on-page "competitors" like Salesforce and Snowflake to break data silos and leverage #GenAI on more comprehensive data sets. AWS, GCP and Azure are not just strengthening their own associations, but they are also actively encouraging collaboration between these ISVs to drive interoperability, aimed at the creation of joint solutions that significantly expand the universe of customers who can benefit. Snowflake’s most recent Polaris Catalog launch also reaffirms its commitment to interoperability with a wider library of industry players (beyond the three clouds) including hyperscaler partners like Salesforce and Confluent. That brings me to point 2…. 2️⃣ Hyperscalers are actively inviting the participation of channel partners to piece complementary solutions together 🤝 As ISVs focus on creating compatible offerings with each other, and with hyperscaler services, buyers have the opportunity to find end-to-end solutions for specific use cases right from the marketplace catalog. To do so, they’re relying on partners to identify, connect and manage these increasingly complex technologies. This presents a tremendous opportunity for channel partners to add value to these marketplace-led deals by helping piece solutions together into a comprehensive whole. Hyperscalers are also cognizant that the “channel is the glue between them and the lower enterprise, midmarket and SMB,” as I’ve hear my friend and founder of Ultimate Partner Vince Menzione put it, and are actively developing strategies to incorporate channels into marketplace deal workflows. There’s a clear signal to shift the perception of marketplaces from being potential threats to traditional partnership associations, to what they really are – growth opportunities. Channel partners who recognize this sooner rather than later, have biggest opportunity to capture net new business.

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"The key to effective partnerships is thinking, 'What's in it for them?'" I loved this quote from Ira Goldfarb, who joined us for our Founders N' Funders Founders Dinner last night at the Alta Club in Salt Lake City. Ira has 40+ years of experience in helping create effective go-to-market strategies for startups. Some of the biggest names in tech bring him in to help solve their go-to-market challenges. We are fortunate to now have Ira as part of the Utah tech / startup ecosystem -- he is a wealth of knowledge, and we all benefited from his wisdom last night, along with the shared insights among a fantastic group of startup founders. 👏 Special shoutout to Timothy Lipton at Momentum Finance for organizing this event and helping us bring together such a powerful group of entrepreneurs. 🍽️Zack Oates🍕 - I am more and more impressed with you as a founder the more I get to know you! Congrats on closing your recent funding round for Ovation that affords you the additional resources to make massive improvements in efficiency for the entire restaurant industry! Marcus D'Ambrosio, founder of Adaract, is on the cutting edge of tech creating robotic innovations that add humanistic elements to robotic machines. Really impressive technical founder with excellent business acumen, who has entrepreneurship in his genes. Matthew Roberts -- It was so good to catch up with you!!! Everywhere I go, I hear people talking about Savvi Legal and PaperOS these days! As an early investor and advisor, I'm a HUGE fan of what Matt and Dan Roberts are building! Love seeing so many investors and funds using them for SPVs and fund admin. But it's even more exciting hearing about what is in the works!!!! 🚀 Nathan Davenport -- Founder of Nebu. I can't wait to get a couple pairs of the outdoor pants. I'll be placing my order this week! I'm always jealous when I see Tim wearing his. 🏔️ Check out https://nebuclothing.com! Eric Lo -- Founder of Krado Inc. is another exceptional founder! Congrats on winning a HUGE contract in the space! I know Tim is a direct investor and I'm an indirect investor in Krado. I love the enormous market potential of what you are doing to disrupt what has been an impenetrable market in the ag space! 🌱 Travis Shreeve, CPA -- Great to finally meet in person! I'm excited to intro you to Dan Tolbert who was involved in The Chosen and worked directly with Angel Studios. The Fablehaven movie series project you are heading up is super intriguing and impressive! 🐉 Jeff Handy -- Congrats again on the somewhat recent funding round for Qualiti. You got a great personal endorsement from Matthew Roberts and several others around the table. I can't wait for the whitewater founder adventures you and Matt were talking about!!! 🛶 Scott Cummings --- So great to see you there! I loved the discussion about your success in relying on fractional resources and experts! Thanks for sharing your insights! #FoundersNFunders

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AI ad products present both opportunities and risks. Leveraging them optimally for consumer brands requires a lot of nuance - with a few of my thoughts in Modern Retail https://lnkd.in/gcYrqmV4

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Instacart is a market leader when it comes to leveraging AI tools to boost productivity at work. I had an amazing conversation with JJ Zhuang, Instacart’s Chief Architect, who has shepherded over 50 AI-driven initiatives to market across the org. We explored what catapulted Instacart to the forefront of AI integration, supporting radically diverse use cases across various functional areas. One striking insight (echoed by Ethan Mollick and others elsewhere) is that you often don't need specialized tools for specialized work. Frontier models like GPT-4 can seamlessly adapt to a wide range of functions and use cases. They're not just for engineers; they're incredibly versatile tools used by marketing, comms, and legal teams. From generating code to proofreading and ideation, GPT-4 empowers every department to leverage AI for enhanced productivity and innovation. By integrating LLM’s like GPT-4 into their workflows, teams can streamline processes, automate repetitive tasks, and unlock bandwidth for new creative possibilities. How can you harness the power of AI in your own work to boost productivity? Share your thoughts below 👇 Want to hear more insights from JJ? Check out the full podcast episode by clicking the link in the comments.

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How We Helped Kiehl's Since 1851 Boost Revenue by $1.6M Through CRO. Kiehl's faced a common ecommerce challenge: increasing conversions while minimizing acquisition costs. Our "Conversion Blueprint" process uncovered 100s of optimizations. ✅ Reduced abandonment ✅ Increased purchases ✅ $1.6M in additional revenue 👉 Check out the full case study below.

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Kudos to Zuck for taking aim at VP titles, the proliferation of which is inversely correlated to how lean a company is and how fast it can move. Hope more CEOs follow in his footsteps. It’s also an appropriate time to reshare my old article on Titles. It’s a call to arms to be very thoughtful and intentional about Director / VP titles and avoid them for as long as possible. https://lnkd.in/g4zQkEr

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As we dive into 2024, the Series A fundraising landscape is becoming increasingly daunting. Investment standards are soaring, and fewer startups are making the cut. Series A investors are finding many seed stage companies too premature. The median valuation jump from seed to Series A skyrocketed from $19.5 million in Q1 2022 to $28.7 million in Q1 2024. Investors now demand stronger revenue performance, targeting $2 million to $3 million in ARR, up from $1 million to $2 million. Alarmingly, only 12% of Q1 2022 seed startups secured Series A funding within two years, down from 31.8% in Q1 2020. #venture #earlystage #seedtoseriesa #seed #seriesa #inspireglobalventures https://lnkd.in/gW4bkcNy

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I believe two of the big winners over the next 10 years in the SMB category will be PE who are rolling up the businesses and GenAI powered software that makes running these businesses significantly more turnkey and/or profitable. Thanks for having me on Jay Kapoor. If you want spicy takes fast forward to 25 min mark. If you want to get deep in market analysis buckle in for the whole thing. https://lnkd.in/d8M7Jyrx

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Button is now supercharging creator and affiliate programs for the largest retailers with impact.com! Building a business model on top of commerce is what people call future proofing. This is the direction the internet is heading, and it's great to see two of the largest players collaborating on different but complementary parts of the ecosystem to drive increased value for our customers. Combining the scale of Impact's platform with the AI powered commerce optimization Button delivers - joint customers can drive more incremental profit, additional HVAs like app installs, and improve their shoppers experiences like never before. Check out our case study below and the others on our site! #commerceisthefuture #commerceoptimization #mobileappinstalls #higherprofit #incrementalgrowth https://lnkd.in/e7mxKMqq

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118 VCs (one hundred eighteen!) are gathering in San Diego next week - to meet with 30 SD startups. But it's so MUCH bigger than just those 30 co's. It brings VCs back - when they see quality companies. It helps those who are next-in-line and adjacent. It enables us to send deal flow all year 'round. It attracts talent and other companies. It inspires entrepreneurship. Connect is working for SD. Together, we're building the best damn innovation ecosystem on the planet. Year over year. Five.Ten.Thirty.

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In my last post I shared the launch of my new series, highlighting the market opportunities I am most excited about for investment at Forum Ventures.  In the realm of enterprise software, the automation of complex, legacy workflows represents a significant opportunity for generative AI to drive transformative change.  Namely, any function within an organization where a group of individuals is tasked with doing time-consuming manual error prone workflows. This is particularly burdensome for any highly regulated industry such as pharma, global trade, and financial services, making compliance and regulatory reporting one of the most impactful areas for automation to come into play. ◾ Beginning with trade compliance, we have seen our own portfolio company, Importal, carve out a unique wedge via streamlining import/export regulations and reduce compliance risk, breaking visibility barriers of some of the most opaque textile and raw material global supply chains. ◾ The supply chain applications do not end with cross border trade, evident by the need for innovation across reporting functions, chief of which lies in the growing concern around emissions reporting - an inevitability enterprises across the globe are tasked with solving with varying degrees of executional capacity. This is where startups such as GreenIRR Inc. come in, offering a trucking specific, real time, fully integrated carbon emissions accounting platform that simplifies measuring fleet emissions. ◾ The pharma use case is one we have spent time actively diligencing, with companies such as Octozi, and YamaSciences, who are tackling two different sides of the industry - one with a drug approval workflow lens, and the other looking to drive pharma marketing compliance to ensure promotional activities meet regulatory requirements. ◾ Finally, the notoriously anxious and dynamic regulatory environment of tradable financial assets presents several opportunities for impactful automation, one of which we have explored within our studio: automating Act 33 and 34 regulatory submissions, particularly for EDGAR SEC filings to drive accuracy and timeliness. Similarly, Mac Stockdale at Quanta Markets automates compliance and critical back office business function in the notoriously analog world of commodities trading. These are only a handful of examples that demonstrate how AI can effectively handle complex regulatory environments, reducing the burden on human resources and minimizing the risk of non-compliance. If any of the above sounds like something you are building, let’s connect.  We continue to build our vertical ai market map - to be included, submit your company using the link in the comments. #GenAI #Automation #VentureCapital #EnterpriseSoftware #Compliance #Innovation #earlystagestartups

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This is such a wonderful news to learn that Connected TV is gaining traction in this marketing world. Honestly, everytime I see a brand buying the tiny bottom footer of the top header banners with illegible fonts and images on mobile, I cringe and almost want to scream. Cheap CPM and CPC is not about sacrificing your brand image to chase the reach figure. A reach is nothing to your potential customer is you can’t even communicate your message clearly and standout from the crowd. Time to rethink everyone? What metrics matter most? Ultimate is always the revenue and margins, not your reach and frequency figures. When will we shake off this mindset?

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Here’s a question investors are often asked: When evaluating early stage companies, how much time do you spend on due diligence around future exits? It’s not surprising we hear this question a lot. Also not surprising: it’s got a wide range of answers depending on the firm. Some don’t spend much time here at all. Others make it a point to put meaningful time in as part of their process. Our current thinking: take the time to do the work on public market comps. At Alpaca VC, we spend significant time understanding how public market investors will  realistically value a business based on margin profile, product, business model & TAM. In short, we want to know: how will this company be valued at scale when we get taken out? Yes, we can acknowledge that the journey toward exit is a windy road and that there may be pivots along the way, but there are still public market companies that have a business model similar to the early stage company you're evaluating. And you can always look at gross profit multiples if you think the margin profile will change over time. So we still do the work on the comps. Quantitative metrics we look at when making the comparison to public market comps include EBITDA multiple, revenue multiple, Gross Profit multiple or all of the above. As part of this process, it’s also important to factor in the public market company’s year-over-year revenue growth as this will also significantly impact the multiple it trades at. Simple example: if you have two public market companies with similar business models and similar margin profiles, but one's growing 100% year over year, and one's growing 50% year over year, then obviously the DCF (discounted cash flow) analysis is going to spit out a very different valuation for the one that's growing faster. Why this matters: When you take all of that information into account as you evaluate an early stage business, you can begin to create a realistic picture of how this company will be valued in the public markets at exit - or how an acquirer will value the company for an acquisition. Strategic acquirers may, of course, pay a premium, but we won’t underwrite for that. This allows us, for example, to form conviction around valuation based on revenue and gross profit predictions. If we think they can do $100M of revenue five years from now, we use this diligence process to form a thesis about whether the characteristics above (product, margin, business model, etc.) will cause the company to be valued at $200M vs. $500M vs. $1B at exit. Curious how other early stage investors think about underwriting an exit and how much time they’re spending on public market comps even though these companies are in their infancy.

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This is a great read by Sachin Rekhi that outlines the deliberate startup methodology. If you want to learn more - join me while I facilitate his Finding PMF course where we cover the methodology in depth, including case studies. Link to the course in the comments.

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Want to learn more about the role of the business user in low-code. Watch this fun episode of Low down on Low-code!

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